by Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY

by Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY

Barbara Walters, the grande dame of broadcast journalism and the queen of the newsmaker "gets," will say farewell on May 16, her last day on The View. ABC will pay tribute with a two-hour special that night (9 ET/PT).

But who among the women on air today might take her place as TV's top interviewer?

The answer isn't easy:

"They broke the mold," says Andrew Tyndall, whose Tyndall Report tracks television news. Walters demurs. But we managed to come up with five candidates:

1. Robin Roberts, 53

The Good Morning America anchor has not only fostered much goodwill and respect in the past year with her health crisis and coming out, she's also helped the morning show take the long-held ratings lead away from Today.

2. Rachel Maddow, 41

Her smarts made her MSNBC show one of the left-leaning cable-news channel's most popular. A Newsweek profile heralded her for debating "ideological opponents with civility and persistence."

3. Megyn Kelly, 43

The Fox News anchor recently moved to prime time for a more visible role, and she is on Time 100's Most Influential list for 2014.

4. Ellen DeGeneres, 56

An odd choice? Not really, when you consider how many celebrity interviews DeGeneres has done on her daily talk show. Plus, she knows what it's like to be a trailblazer.